Iranian Commander Terms Saudi Arabia "Sponsor of Takfiri Terrorists"
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Saudi Arabia is the sponsor and promoter of Takfiri terrorist groups such as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a senior Iranian commander said on Wednesday.
Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi said Saudi Arabia has spent petrodollars on bolstering these terrorist groups.
He said when the international community realized the ISIL threat, the United States and ISIL sponsors in the region forged a symbolic coalition against the terrorist group.
"But" Firouzabadi said "they (West), in fact, are still supplying arms and ammunition to the Takfiris."
The Iranian commander slammed the increase in Saudi Arabia’s oil production as "a move to reassure the US and the West that they would not face any fuel shortage."
The ISIL militants made swift advances in northern and western Iraq over the summer, after capturing large swaths of northern Syria.
Since late September, the US and some of its allies have been conducting airstrikes against the ISIL inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.
Meanwhile, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the popular forces, who rushed to take arms after top Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling for fight against the militants, have blunted the edge of the ISIL offensive.
